50% off Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Third Edition (10-Volumes)

This discipline-defining encyclopedia serves research needs in numerous fields that are affected by the rapid pace
and substantial impact of technological change and is a must have for every academic library collection.
Expires 12/31/2016.

Abstract

We present CLOUDS, which stands for C++ Library Organizing Uncertainty in Database Systems, a tool that allows the creation of fuzzy reasoning systems over classic, nonfuzzy, relational databases. CLOUDS can be used in three flavors: CLOUDS API, a C++ API; CLOUDS-L, a compiled language; and CLOUDSQL, a fuzzy extension to SQL queries (ANSI, 1992). It was developed using the objectoriented paradigm and has an extensible architecture based on a main control system that manages different models, and runs queries and commands defined in them. As a test, it was incorporated into a geographic information system and used to analyze epidemiological data.

Linguistic Term: A subjective value that can be attributed to a linguistic variable, such as “young” and “mature” for “age.”

API: Application Programming Interface. A source-code interface that a software library provides for programmers to call within their programs and access its services.

Linguistic Variable: A variable, or label, that represents some characteristic of an element, such as “age” for persons or “temperature” for water. It is a variable that takes words, known as linguistic terms, as values. See a formal definition in the first pages of this chapter.

Design Pattern: A design pattern (Gamma, 1995) is a design structure that solves a recurrent problem in some area, such as programming.

CLOUDS: C++ Library Organizing Uncertainty in Database Systems. A library and user interface that act as a fuzzy front-end to a relational database management system.